-WebDVD
-======
+VideoLink
+=========
-WebDVD is intended to provide a simple way of producing DVDs with
+VideoLink is intended to provide a simple way of producing DVDs with
attractive and usable menus. It converts HTML pages into DVD menus by
rendering them in Mozilla and reproducing their link structure. This
allows you to design DVDs using familiar HTML editing tools or your
favourite text editor.
+Prior to version 0.8, VideoLink was called WebDVD, but that name is
+also used for an extended DVD format.
+
Requirements
------------
-WebDVD depends on the following software:
+VideoLink depends on the following software:
- dvdauthor
- expat 1.x
- Gtkmm 2.0
-- mjpegtools 1.6.x (1.8 makes an incompatible change in usage of ppmtoy4m)
-- Mozilla 1.7.x (later versions may work but are untested)
+- ffmpeg or mjpegtools
+- Mozilla 1.7.8 or later, or XULRunner
- netpbm
- Xvfb (from XFree86 or X.org)
- mkisofs
-You will also need a program such as ffmpeg or mencoder for producing
-DVD-suitable MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video files.
+You will also need a program for producing DVD-suitable MPEG-1 or
+MPEG-2 video files.
Usage
-----
video sequence, create and link to a VOB-list file (explained below)
whose name ends in ".voblist".
-You can link to a title and begin playback at the beginning of a
-specific chapter by adding "#" and then the chapter number to the end
-of the URL.
-
VOB-lists
A VOB-list file is an XML file with the document element <vob-list>
Video standards
-By default, webdvd generates PAL/SECAM video. If you wish to produce
-NTSC DVDs you can override this by adding the option "--video-std ntsc"
-to the following commands.
+The encoding of analogue TV and video signals varies in many different
+ways between countries. Happily there are only two parameters that
+matter for standard-definition digital video, and two different pairs
+of values. You can choose between these with the --video-std option:
+
+Analogue parameters | Region of world | --video-std | Frame
+ | | argument | size
+----------------------+------------------------------+-------------+--------
+59.94 fields/second, | Americas except Argentina, | 525 | 720x576
+interlaced; | Paraguay, Uruguay; | or 525/60 |
+525 lines/frame | Japan; Laos; Myanmar; | or NTSC |
+(commonly called | Philippines; South Korea; | or ntsc |
+ NTSC) | Taiwan; some Pacific islands | |
+----------------------+------------------------------+-------------+--------
+50 fields/second, | Rest of world | 625 | 720x480
+interlaced; | | or 625/50 |
+625 lines/frame | | or PAL |
+(commonly called PAL) | | or pal |
+
+The default is to use "PAL" parameters.
+
+Currently
Preview
-To get a rough preview of the menus, run "webdvd --preview menu-url"
+To get a rough preview of the menus, run "videolink --preview menu-url"
where menu-url is the URL or filename of the first page to show.
Currently videos cannot be displayed in this preview mode.
Processing
-To create a DVD filesystem, run "webdvd menu-url output-dir" where
+To create a DVD filesystem, run "videolink menu-url output-dir" where
menu-url is the URL or filename of the top menu page and output-dir is
the directory in which to create the filesystem (which should be
-either nonexistent or empty). WebDVD will automatically follow links
+either nonexistent or empty). VideoLink will automatically follow links
to the other pages and to the video files.
+By default, VideoLink now calls ffmpeg to generate MPEG-2 streams for
+menus. If you want it to use mjpegtools as it previously did, you
+must add the option "--encoder mjpegtools". If you use mjpegtools
+1.6.2 or earlier you must instead use "--encoder mjpegtools-old".
+This is due to an incompatible change in the syntax of the ppmtoy4m
+command between versions 1.6.2 and 1.8.
+
If this is successful you can then use mkisofs to create a DVD image
from the output directory. Alternately you can write this directory
directly to a writable DVD with growisofs or with mkisofs piped to a
-------
A live example set of menus can currently be found at
-<http://womble.decadentplace.org.uk/software/debconf5-dvd/menus/main.html>.
+<http://womble.decadent.org.uk/software/debconf5-dvd/menus/main.html>.
Note that this has large background images that will take some time to
load.
-----------
Each page must fit within the frame - DVD players do not support
-scrolling menus and WebDVD currently is not able to split them into
-multiple menus. The standard frame size for PAL and SECAM is 720x576
-pixels; for NTSC it is 720x480 pixels. The exact visible area varies
-between TVs so the background should cover all or very nearly all the
-frame whereas the important content such as text must not be placed
-near the edge. For this reason WebDVD applies a stylesheet to all
-pages that adds 60 pixels of padding on all sides of the body; this
-doesn't apply to the background.
+scrolling menus and VideoLink currently is not able to split them into
+multiple menus. The frame size is dictated by the video standard; see
+above. The exact visible area varies between TVs so the background
+should cover all or very nearly all the frame whereas the important
+content such as text must not be placed near the edge. For this
+reason VideoLink applies a stylesheet to all pages that adds 60 pixels of
+padding on all sides of the body; this doesn't apply to the
+background.
Prior to Mozilla version 1.8, which I have not yet tested, Mozilla may
signal that a page is completely loaded before any background images
are loaded and displayed. This results in snapshots that do not
include background images. You can work around this by using
-absolutely-positioned "inline" images, or attempt to build WebDVD
+absolutely-positioned "inline" images, or attempt to build VideoLink
against Mozilla 1.8.
DVD players do not have "back" buttons, so you should generally
provide links to "higher" menu pages. However, they do have a button
for returning to the top menu.
-WebDVD sends a "mouseover" event for each link and sets it into its
+VideoLink sends a "mouseover" event for each link and sets it into its
"hover" state, then records how this changes its appearance. This
change is then shown when the corresponding button on the DVD menu is
-highlighted. WebDVD applies a stylesheet which changes the colour of
+highlighted. VideoLink applies a stylesheet which changes the colour of
text links in the "hover" state, but this has no effect on image
links. You must ensure that image links are highlighted in an obvious
way when the mouse pointer is over them.
The DVD specifications limit each menu to having no more than 36
buttons. In any case, it is poor design to have very large numbers of
-buttons on a single menu. WebDVD will warn you if you use more than
+buttons on a single menu. VideoLink will warn you if you use more than
this number of a links on a page, and will ignore any additional ones.
The DVD specification also limits the overlays that are used for
-highlighting of buttons to using no more than 4 colours. WebDVD will
+highlighting of buttons to using no more than 4 colours. VideoLink will
reduce link highlighting to 1 transparent and 3 opaque colours using
Floyd-Steinberg dithering, which is certainly good enough for
anti-aliased text but may not be so good for complex highlighting.
chapters of a title, so long as they use the same codecs, resolution,
aspect ratio and sample rate. However, each chapter will run into the
next. If this is a real problem, let me know, and I may be able to
-provide a better solution in a later version of WebDVD.
+provide a better solution in a later version of VideoLink.
Author and copyright
--------------------
-WebDVD was written by Ben Hutchings <ben@decadentplace.org.uk>.
+VideoLink was written by Ben Hutchings <ben@decadent.org.uk>.
Copyright 2005-2006 Ben Hutchings.
This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
projects / videolink.git / blobdiff